David Boraks

Environmental Reporter

David Boraks

David Boraks covers Energy and the Environment and other topics for WFAE. He also has worked as a "Charlotte Talks" producer (2015-16) and as weekend host (2007-2016). He's a veteran Charlotte-area journalist who previously published the online community news network that included DavidsonNews.net and CorneliusNews.net (2006-2015).

He also has worked for American Banker (2000-2005), The Charlotte Observer (1993-2000), The China News in Taipei (1991), The Cambridge (Mass.) Chronicle (1989-1991) and The Hartford Courant (1986-89).

David has a bachelor's degree in history from Cornell University and a master's degree from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn.

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A cleanup of Little Sugar Creek has been completed after a diesel spill just before Thanksgiving. Ducks along the waterway were covered in oil, but they’ve now been nursed back to health as well. Thursday morning, some returned home Freedom Park, just in time for Christmas.

Local music fans in Charlotte this weekend are losing an old friend: Tremont Music Hall, which is closing after 20 years.

Penny Craver founded the club in 1995, in an old industrial building on West Tremont Avenue in Charlotte’s South End. Since then, it has hosted a long list of big names, both before and after they found success, from Green Day to John Mayer to metal band Primus. It’s also where many local bands got their starts.

Protesters were a fixture outside the recent climate change summit in Paris, calling on world leaders to agree on a plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. On Wednesday, local activists staged a rally of their own, supporting a new federal plan addressing climate change - and opposing North Carolina’s response.

Duke Energy plans to add two more solar energy projects to its North Carolina power network next year, as it works to meet state requirements for clean electricity.

The company is asking the North Carolina Utilities Commission for permission to take over two projects already in development - a 60-megawatt solar farm in Monroe and a 15.4-megawatt facility in Mocksville, in Davie County.

If approved, construction on both would start in March and be done by the end of 2016.

Corning Inc. is boosting its use of renewable energy in North Carolina through a big solar power deal announced Monday with a division of Charlotte-based Duke Energy.

Duke Energy Renewables began construction earlier this year on an 80-megawatt solar farm in Conetoe, east of Rocky Mount in eastern North Carolina. When it’s finished later this month, it will be the largest of its kind east of the Mississippi.

Governor Pat McCrory has been ramping up his re-election campaign over the past week, but it now looks like he’ll face a challenge from within his own party. Former state Rep. Robert Brawley (R-Mooresville) said Wednesday he’ll run against the governor in the March primary for the Republican nomination.

Corning Optical Communications plans to move its headquarters from Hickory to a new $38.7 million office building Charlotte in 2018. A spokeswoman said the company is looking at sites off I-485 northwest of Charlotte, and hopes to announce the location by April 1.

Workers have mostly contained a 1,000-gallon diesel spill from an uptown office building into Little Sugar Creek last week. The spill affected birds and turtles along the waterway, and county officials say they’re studying whether to issue a fine.